4 ms·

Does anybody have an interesting use case for this? Just curious whether it's actually used.

by hiq 11y ago

brianshaler 11y ago
It helps me visually understand and debug bitwise operations. I suppose you could also compare inputs and outputs by printing the resulting integer as binary text, but I've always just used my hands. It can also be nifty for ASCII conversions, as letters A-Z and a-z are the numbers 0-26, but with different prefixes (010 and 011 accordingly). This means you can read people's binary tattoos.
asciimo 11y ago
I always thought, "how high can you count using your fingers" would be a fun interview question.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- logicallee 11y ago
  Oooooh, I love "guess what the interviewer is thinking instead of answering his question." For example the natural response might be, "Well, I personally can count to ten" and, after you pressed about alternative schemes: "On a more theoretical level you could of course enumerate way more states than ten using your fingers. Just think of American sign language, which has 26 letters only one of which includes motion (the Z).[1] And that's on a single hand, so just counting the letters in ASL only - and no other gestures, you can count to at least 676. Add a few more static hand shapes - there are lots of shapes in ASL- maybe try to learn a hundred per hand, which is good because you can encode two digits in each hand, I could confidently count to 10,000 using just my fingers. It would probably take no more than a few days to learn." Would I pass your interview? Probably not, because it wasn't what you were thinking of. Even though I just showed you that I could count to ten times higher than the number you were thinking of. And I wouldn't even mention what I was REALLY thinking which is "Hmmmm, I wonder where the limit is. A human hand has about 26 degrees of freedom, so two hands have about 52, if we encode a degree using just 2 bits - one of four levels of flexion - we're at 52 * 2 = 104 bits. So something like 10^31 = what is that 'ten nonillion'. I probably shouldn't say nonillion. No, I definitely shouldn't say nonillion. Probably even a million is pushing it, I shouldn't say that. But I bet it's possible - a million is just twenty bits, that's just 10 bits per hand, or two bits per finger and it's obvious that a finger has way more than 4 positions it can take - looking at my own hand my first knuckles are independent of the crook of the finger, it doesn't take much effort at all to control them independently.... I bet I can count to a million." [1] http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/handshapes.htm http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/handshapes.htm
  - ask5 11y ago
    You like talking, don't you?
  - technomancy 11y ago
    Maybe you wouldn't get the job not because you gave a different answer, but because you assumed the worst about the interviewer; that he was a fool who didn't know how to run an interview.
    - moron4hire 11y ago
      To be fair, that is often a good assumption to make.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  - kybernetikos 11y ago
    That's a shame, because if I were to ask that question in an interview (and I would be unlikely to merely because of the fact that too many people dislike those kinds of questions), that last discussion would be precisely what I would be hoping to hear.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
jeffwass 11y ago
Maybe a good excuse after certain insulting hand gestures? "No, I wasn't flipping you off with both hands, I was trying to tell you the number 132 in binary."
Latebird 11y ago
Yup. I count in binary on the pillow during sex so I can last longer. Been doing it for years now. Works wonders.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ldpg 11y ago
In fisrt (2?) novels of The Baroque Cycle there is a section explaining this system and character who uses it as a trader. Wall street floor traders use(d) their own system for quickly flashing round numbers in ranges higher than ten http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xRJQ7X06g_I/TgyPveGUbqI/AAAAAAAAAl4/3eCRqdqvqC4/s1600/cboe2.PNG http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xRJQ7X06g_I/TgyPveGUbqI/AAAAAAAAAl...
suddenlyme 11y ago
I taught my wife to count this way. She is a teacher and 31 is about as big as a class gets at her school, so she can count her kids as they come in and still carry her books or her laptop etc. Its quite a simple pattern once you get then hang of it. She can just advance the count without thinking and then look at her hand and work out what she is up to. I'd suggest inverting the numbers so that your thumb is 1, your index finger 2, you middle 4, etc. That way your more dexterous fingers do the fast movements of 1's, and 2s and 4s while your slower ring and pinky count up in 8 and 16s. It really can be rather handy. I find the most useful times is when you think of your hands as two five bit registers... when you need to count two things at once.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
bornon5 11y ago
I've used this for years to count measures when playing with an orchestra. I have to continually support my instrument with one hand, so I use the other hand to count.

Does anybody have an interesting use case for this? Just curious whether it's actually used.

by hiq 11y ago

Does anybody have an interesting use case for this? Just curious whether it's actually used.

It helps me visually understand and debug bitwise operations. I suppose you could also compare inputs and outputs by printing the resulting integer as binary text, but I've always just used my hands. It can also be nifty for ASCII conversions, as letters A-Z and a-z are the numbers 0-26, but with different prefixes (010 and 011 accordingly). This means you can read people's binary tattoos.

asciimo 11y ago

I always thought, "how high can you count using your fingers" would be a fun interview question.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
logicallee 11y ago
Oooooh, I love "guess what the interviewer is thinking instead of answering his question." For example the natural response might be, "Well, I personally can count to ten" and, after you pressed about alternative schemes: "On a more theoretical level you could of course enumerate way more states than ten using your fingers. Just think of American sign language, which has 26 letters only one of which includes motion (the Z).[1] And that's on a single hand, so just counting the letters in ASL only - and no other gestures, you can count to at least 676. Add a few more static hand shapes - there are lots of shapes in ASL- maybe try to learn a hundred per hand, which is good because you can encode two digits in each hand, I could confidently count to 10,000 using just my fingers. It would probably take no more than a few days to learn." Would I pass your interview? Probably not, because it wasn't what you were thinking of. Even though I just showed you that I could count to ten times higher than the number you were thinking of. And I wouldn't even mention what I was REALLY thinking which is "Hmmmm, I wonder where the limit is. A human hand has about 26 degrees of freedom, so two hands have about 52, if we encode a degree using just 2 bits - one of four levels of flexion - we're at 52 * 2 = 104 bits. So something like 10^31 = what is that 'ten nonillion'. I probably shouldn't say nonillion. No, I definitely shouldn't say nonillion. Probably even a million is pushing it, I shouldn't say that. But I bet it's possible - a million is just twenty bits, that's just 10 bits per hand, or two bits per finger and it's obvious that a finger has way more than 4 positions it can take - looking at my own hand my first knuckles are independent of the crook of the finger, it doesn't take much effort at all to control them independently.... I bet I can count to a million." [1] http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/handshapes.htm http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/handshapes.htm
- ask5 11y ago
  You like talking, don't you?
- technomancy 11y ago
  Maybe you wouldn't get the job not because you gave a different answer, but because you assumed the worst about the interviewer; that he was a fool who didn't know how to run an interview.
  - moron4hire 11y ago
    To be fair, that is often a good assumption to make.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- kybernetikos 11y ago
  That's a shame, because if I were to ask that question in an interview (and I would be unlikely to merely because of the fact that too many people dislike those kinds of questions), that last discussion would be precisely what I would be hoping to hear.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

jeffwass 11y ago

Maybe a good excuse after certain insulting hand gestures? "No, I wasn't flipping you off with both hands, I was trying to tell you the number 132 in binary."

Latebird 11y ago

Yup. I count in binary on the pillow during sex so I can last longer. Been doing it for years now. Works wonders.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

ldpg 11y ago

In fisrt (2?) novels of The Baroque Cycle there is a section explaining this system and character who uses it as a trader. Wall street floor traders use(d) their own system for quickly flashing round numbers in ranges higher than ten http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xRJQ7X06g_I/TgyPveGUbqI/AAAAAAAAAl4/3eCRqdqvqC4/s1600/cboe2.PNG http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xRJQ7X06g_I/TgyPveGUbqI/AAAAAAAAAl...

suddenlyme 11y ago

I taught my wife to count this way. She is a teacher and 31 is about as big as a class gets at her school, so she can count her kids as they come in and still carry her books or her laptop etc. Its quite a simple pattern once you get then hang of it. She can just advance the count without thinking and then look at her hand and work out what she is up to. I'd suggest inverting the numbers so that your thumb is 1, your index finger 2, you middle 4, etc. That way your more dexterous fingers do the fast movements of 1's, and 2s and 4s while your slower ring and pinky count up in 8 and 16s. It really can be rather handy. I find the most useful times is when you think of your hands as two five bit registers... when you need to count two things at once.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

bornon5 11y ago

I've used this for years to count measures when playing with an orchestra. I have to continually support my instrument with one hand, so I use the other hand to count.